Insights
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4 ways I got out of the day-to-day at the fastest growing agency in the country
I’m continuing my series of articles about getting out of the day-to-day by sharing four things I personally did at Rise at Seven, plus one more that anyone can do, if you don’t feel like you can go all in like I did.
Are you doing your job (or someone else's)?
Last week I shared what I think agencies can expect from the market going into 2026. This second week in January I’m talking about the second most important thing: what you do at the agency.
The state of the market going into 2026
It’s my first day working after a Christmas break, so I’m summarising various conversations I’ve had with agencies and brands throughout Q4 2025 (and the odd message exchanged in the past 2 weeks).
Small print with big impact
Nobody likes contract negotiations (except me). You’re trying to set the tone for the relationship and the last thing you feel like you need is an argument over the fine print in the contract.
Unpopular opinions about promoting staff to management roles
More and more agencies are creating new “tracks” for staff who don’t want to (or can’t) manage people. If agencyland reframed the concept of “manager” as “someone who gets results out of other people”, rather than “someone who helps other people with their workloads”, we’d see this trend as more problematic.
Why your employees don't refer you new business
Most agencies I've worked with offer some kind of incentive to staff for introducing new business. Some of the team might almost double their salaries with the commissions you might be offering, so why does nobody ever refers their mates to the business development manager?
A framework for your All Hands or update meeting
We're starting to think about our end of year updates to our whole businesses, so let's explore what should be included in that presentation.
The 3 investments
When a prospective client is looking to appoint an agency, they must make three investments, not just one. The investments are money, time and change.
The problem with revenue per head
Revenue per head is one of the most widely used metrics in agency management. I regularly speak to agency leaders who tell me they are aiming for a revenue per head of £X because a book told them to (you know which one). Let's talk about something better.
4 meetings that matter
Aiming to spend 1 day per week running the business is not a lot of time, so I chaired (or co-chaired) 4 weekly meetings that covered most things within my remit (sales, client service, strategy, operations - including HR and IT - and the general responsibilities of ownership). Here's what they covered.